Sunset Shimmer: Path of the Damned

by Blackdrag-rose

Cataclysm: Into Deepholm

With the downfall of Al'Akir and his Conclave, and the death of every living creature in Uldum, Sunset used a bit of magic to mold some of the gold in the main city to form a throne, allowing her to sit for a time as she stared at the newest faction of the Scourge. Such a thing made her think about the arrival of Deathwing and how the provinces that had been revealed all had an interesting force for her to claim for her army, boosting the power of the Scourge with each army she tore down, all while noticing that the Alliance and the Horde were being cowards right now. Of course she knew that they were hiding from her, given her might and the fact that she stood where her predecessor once stood, but part of her actually expected them to do something, anything, to try and save this world from the disaster that was currently unfolding, and yet they were clearly leaving this to her. Sunset didn't mind that, of course, since the more she slew the greater her army became, not to mention that her own power grew as she cut down those who dared to face her in battle, but she honestly expected the heroes of Azeroth to do something about Deathwing.

As she thought about that, however, she received a report from Ragnaros' forces, as the Firelord had traveled over to the Eastern Kingdoms and attacked Deathwing, killing a smaller black dragon in the process, though the interesting thing was that a red dragon fled with a black dragon egg, with some heroes no less.

"Interesting. That egg must be important for them to actually risk themselves like this." Sunset remarked, mostly talking to herself for a moment as she listened to the report, though while she was a little annoyed that the living escaped she was fine with Ragnaros harassing Deathwing, keeping the Aspect of Death distracted for a time, before she focused on the force that was in front of her, "Al'Akir, you and my new soldiers will stay here for a time, to fortify our position in this province, and once I'm sure we're ready we can begin our assault on both the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor... I, on the other hand, have one last destination I want to conquer before we move forward."

As Al'Akir bowed his head, and the new Scourge did the same as well, Sunset removed herself from the throne, spread her wings, and took to the air once more, though this time she headed for the one place that many might not expect her to travel to, that being the Maelstrom. From what she knew it served as an entrance to Deepholm, where Deathwing had been hiding to lick his wounds and piece together his shattered body, becoming the molten figure that many knew about, but she was after something else since she knew the dragon would have left nothing behind. Her true prize would be Therazane and her forces, the last of the four Elemental Lords, along with the Twilight cultists who were likely still wandering around in an attempt to enslave the land to their will of their dark masters. Of course she knew that Deathwing's arrival had damaged the foundations of the Elemental Planes, allowing each one to slip into Azeroth more than they could in the past, so she might have to repair that damage to stabilize things, otherwise she'd have to worry about one reality consuming the other while she was tearing the living down.

It took her some time to reach her destination, the swirling mass in the ocean that was surrounded by a fair number of large rocks, some of which could be platforms for people to stand on, and as she landed Sunset spotted something, Thrall was standing on the other side of the Maelstrom, only he was wearing the attire of a shaman.

"Thrall, I'm honestly surprised that you're here... I figured that you, and the rest of the living, would have fled by now, just to stay alive for a bit longer." Sunset remarked, where she floated down to where the orc was standing and found that he was channeling his elemental energy to either maintain the Maelstrom or speak to the elements, all while noticing the rain that was hitting the area.

"Sunset Shimmer, I do not wish to fight you, rather I wish to aid this world in healing from the cataclysm." Thrall replied, a fact that many of the shaman of the world agreed with, even though he insisted on being one of the few people to be here, so the others could aid in their efforts to flee before the Lich Queen found them, though his mate, Aggra, refused to leave his side and so far he could see that Sunset hadn't spotted her yet.

"Yes, something happened in Deepholm, that much I understand, thanks to all the Twilight cultists I killed." Sunset stated, as she understood the plans that the cult had for this world and she was planning on breaking everything they had planned so far, before she came to a stop some distance in front of the shaman, who she knew was powerful when he tapped into his full elemental power, "However, you and the others that are here are members of the living, and that means that you must die before I do anything else."

Thrall said nothing as he and the other three shamans, Aggra and two others, channeled their elemental energy and called forth a hand of earth that gripped Sunset, large enough to contain her for a short period of time, and before she could even swing her sword he hurled her into the Maelstrom, trapping her in Deepholm to give the living more time before she started her invasion of the other provinces. Sunset, on the other hand, passed through the portal with ease and found herself in a massive underground cavern, one that was unlike anything she had seen before, especially when she spotted a tower that had been shattered, but she instantly knew where she was, as she was now in the realm of Therazane the Stonemother, Deepholm. She grinned for a moment, as while the living would live to see another day she would claim the last of the Elemental Lords and boost the power of the Scourge even more, to the point where the living might surrender to her might, to which she spun around and corrected herself. As she focused her mind she could tell that there were all sorts of earthen creatures for her to take down, such as stone dragons, stone dwarves, a race called troggs as well, and a number of powerful elementals that had to be like the Conclave.

While Sunset debated where to go first, even though she did locate the Twilight camps, she glanced at the ruined tower for a few seconds and knew she had to track the pieces of it down, hence why her magic was rolling all over the realm at the moment, seeking her targets and the scattered pieces.

In the end she started with the Twilight camps, where Sunset landed in one of them and swung Frostmourne, cutting her foes down before they had a chance to stop her or even defend themselves, though they didn't stay dead for long as the val'kyr that was following her raised the fallen into undeath. The interesting thing she discovered was that there was a few disguised dragons leading the cultists, twilight dragons to be exact, who usually had dark purple scales, sort of like when the day turned to night, and she only knew that because one of the now risen cultists had been a dragon in disguise. With that information in had she also learned something else, there was a dragon called Abyssion who happened to be carrying a piece of the 'World Pillar' on him, meaning if she wanted to stabilize the world he had to die, not that such a thing really mattered to her since she was planning on ending him anyway. The good thing about this was that the twilight dragons would make a good addition to her forces, in addition to the elemental forces she would be stealing in due time, and once she claimed the entirety of the camp, with her val'kyr raising the dead to serve her, Sunset focused on tracking down the rest of the camps.

Based on what she had discovered and learned so far the Twilight's Hammer cultists were great at enslaving the elements to their will, in fact some of their stronger members had 'Ascended' forms, those who weren't dragons anyway, but even those stood little chance against her might as she cut them down. Another thing she discovered was that a portion of the cult's forces in Deepholm were stationed in the Stonecore, as in the very heart of the temple that had been the pillar that Deathwing had shattered earlier, so while her forces tracked down all three pieces of the pillar she had another target to wipe out. Of course, before she did that, Sunset tracked down Abyssion, who was an imposing beast, even for a drake who wasn't an aspect, meaning he must have been blessed in some manner, and cut down the dragon before he could even do anything to her, allowing her to raise him as a soldier of the Scourge. With that done he handed over the fragment that he had been carrying for some time, which she stored inside her pack for the time being, before joining everyone else in slaughtering the rest of the remaining cultists, though she knew that once all of the cultists were slain they were move on to their other enemies, all of the earth elementals.

While that happened Sunset spread her wings and flew over to the massive tower, circling around it before discovering an entrance to the Stonecore, though when she went inside she discovered a number of cultists that were surprised to find her approaching their 'sacred site', the area Deathwing had been worked on before leaving Deepholm.

Sure enough the cultists weren't strong by any stretch of the imagination, in fact they were the same as those Sunset had killed before coming here, but there was one powerful mortal that she cut down and raised into undeath, a gnome mage called Millhouse Manastorm, who had the potential to be an Archmage in time. With him and his followers joining her she started to cut down the elementals that were guarding the inside of the tower, such as a large stone worm, a gyreworm as they were called, that she slew in no time, or a stone drake that challenged her to a fight, even if it resulted in her bringing it down in no time. After that she discovered a large stone elemental, a colossus to be exact, that was wandering the halls and saw her as a threat to Deathwing's plans, though while it was tougher than the other enemies it didn't last long either, ending with Sunset killing and raising it into undeath before entering the core of Stonecore. The last figures she found in this place were some insane members of the Twilight's Hammer, plus a high priestess, though through death Sunset was able to liberate them from the madness that their dark masters had forced upon them, adding their power to the strength of the Scourge.

Once the Stonecore had been claimed for the Scourge, even though it was more like a stepping stone, Sunset headed out into Deepholm and found that the risen cultists were following Abyssion's lead, tearing down the elementals of this realm so they could be raised into undeath as well.

"Who dares invade my realm and harm my children?" a loud voice shouted, which filled a good portion of Deepholm for a moment as Sunset tracked it down, finding a large and obese woman made out of stone, floating above the ground with stones rapidly moving below her, moving down to their position, before she locked eyes with Sunset, "You! You dare bring the stench of Death to my realm?!"

"Yes, I do, and you shall fall as well, just like the others." Sunset stated, where she shifted her stance for a moment before rushing at her final target, though this time around she could see that Therazane wasn't surprised by her assault, rather the Elemental Lord sent spikes of earth at her, intending to either pierce her or smash her into the ground.

Sunset was fine with this change of pace, as she had been disappointed with the Elemental Lords falling with her doing next to nothing to take them down, though Ragnaros didn't count since she never fought him, but her fun was only for a brief moment as she slashed through Therazane and downed her, causing Deepholm to shudder as she raised her into undeath as well.

"And with that the four Elemental Lords are now under my thumb." Sunset commented, which pleased her greatly, since it cut down on the number of enemies that the living could ally with in the future, and as she said that some of her forces delivered to her the other two pieces of the pillar, allowing her to restore it and stop Azeroth from being swallowed by this realm, before discovering Kairoz among her new forces, "Kairoz, what an unexpected surprise. Did something happen?"

"We have found an artifact you might be interested in, though it involves heading into the past to claim." Kairoz replied, as he had been studying the timelines, making alterations to create a world of worgen, an interesting turn he admitted, just as his mistress bade him to do, before locating something she might like to claim for herself, "Plus we discovered a new continent to the south of the Maelstrom, a land called Pandaria, which we can invade as soon as Deathwing is dealt with."

Sunset grinned for a moment as she wondered what sort of artifact Kairoz and his team had discovered, especially since he was convinced that she would like it enough to claim it, not to mention a whole new continent, with all sorts of races to fight, kill, and raise as members of the Scourge, and she was actually looking forward to tackling both discoveries.

Comments

[midnight arrow]

great chapter wonder what is going to happen next time on sunset ball z